


The Same Side of the Same Coin

by lettersofwrittencollective



Category: I Medici | Medici: Masters of Florence (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26614720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lettersofwrittencollective/pseuds/lettersofwrittencollective
Summary: As the oldest Medici daughter, there are things that are expected of you. As the heir of Pazzi, there are things expected of him.
Relationships: Francesco de' Pazzi/ you, Francesco de' Pazzi/Reader
Kudos: 14





	The Same Side of the Same Coin

**Author's Note:**

> i apologize for any and all misspellings, OOC, tense changes, etc. this is not only a new fandom for me but it is also the first time I write this character at all and i was low key just way to excited to share

The sound of footsteps echoed outside but it was when the telltale sign of the doors opening and closing as feet entered the villa. You and mother made your way towards the entrances, only to see Bianca being returned by the guards. 

Your mother moved to go towards her but Lorenzo’s voice stopped her, “I will speak to her.”

A part of you was jealous of your younger sister. Youngest of your parents children, she was doted upon by everyone and your father had spoiled her beyond measure. 

Bianca said she loved Guglielmo and had been seeing the boy “secretly” for years. Both you and Giuliano knew all about the affair. It seemed, however, that your father and brother were too busy to notice and your mother well you did not know what she actually knew. 

It was when you heard Bianca screaming at Lorenzo that you decided that you would not sit here and listen to her. 

Making your way to your brothers rooms, you knock on the door before entering. 

“She is home and I guarantee you that it cannot be more than ten minutes before Lorenzo leaves and is on his way to to Jacopo Pazzi to convince the man to somehow turn this in her favor!” you sigh as you throw yourself down on the bed. 

“Would you prefer he allow them to become pariahs?” Giuliano asks and you can hear the chuckle in his voice. 

Sighing, you shake your head, “Of course not Giuliano- do not be absurd. It just frustrates me that Bianca is forever getting everything she wants.”

“Oh I very much think she would care to disagree with you,” Giuliano tells you and you cannot help but scoff. 

“Perhaps…” you answer as you sit up. Taking a moment, you adjust your dress before speaking up again, “But even if she does, mother and father have allowed her to get away with everything since she was a baby. When we had our lessons, tutors would have to chase her through the villa in order to get her to sit down and learn something. If I was even late, father made sure I was reprimanded. I am the one that is expected to sacrifice for the family. I am the one that will end up in a marriage that Lorenzo will arrange in order to gain some sort of advantage with someone or other.” 

“You could say something,” Giuliano tells you, he has moved so that he is leaning against one of the posts on his bed. “I am sure that Lorenzo would allow you to love someone on your own terms.

Sighing, you merely shake your head, “It makes no difference. It does not matter anymore- no matter what I want. I will be married off, as are all women and it will be to further some mans fortunes by such an advantageous match to Y/N Medici… ”

A silence falls between the two of you. Giuliano has always understood you the most and he was allowing you a moment of - what exactly you were not sure… though you hoped that it was perhaps a moment of mourning. 

“For what it is worth, you are much more discreet than Bianca is,” Giuliano tells you and your eyes immediately cut to his, your heart seizing in your throat at his knowing look. 

“You cannot…” you beg of him as you stand, taking his hand in yours, your voice barely above a whisper.

Giuliano promises he will not say a word.

***

All too soon, the wedding arrived. Before the sun set, Bianca and Guglielmo would be wedded. 

You had allowed yourself a moment of pure and utter sorrow for a world you knew you have never had for just a few minutes before you had gotten dressed for the day. 

A beautiful emerald colored dress, enough to show yourself off to the world but no so much that you would upstage your sister. 

You had watched the wedding, your eyes having a hard time staying on the bride and groom, instead warring with themselves and landing on Francesco repeatedly. 

As a child, you had grown up with Francesco and his family and even before you knew what love was- you knew that you cared for Francesco Pazzi. After his mother and father died, after Jacopo had torn his nephews from your life, you had not had a chance to really interact with Francesco but each time you did, the old feelings would rear their heads again. 

Before he left for Rome, you had caught him looking your way many times and you could have sworn there was an affection there. 

The day of your fathers death, you’d been tempted to run to him when he fell from the horse.. But the fear of his rejection had rooted you to your spot. 

Apparently being in his presence too long, however, meant you could not stop looking at him.

You were enjoying a glass of wine when you noticed Francesco had gone towards one of the smaller studies. Making your way towards the study, you tried to think of the ways in which you would be able to strike up a conversation that would allow you just a moment with him. 

As you approached, however, you hear a woman’s voice, “But what kind of bride will I be?” 

You can hear him telling someone to be careful with that, whatever that is answered just a few moments later. Just as the females voice asks if she will be a danger to herself or to some as yet unknown man, an arrow embeds itself in the door frame. 

Gasping softly at the site of the arrow you look up to see Francesco’s green eyes on you. However, this time they are simply filled with surprise. 

You can hear someone calling for the woman, Novella, and Francesco is moving so that he’s covering the arrow from whoever is looking for her. 

“Francesco,” you greet kindly as you enter the room, pulling the arrow from the door frame, “I hope you are enjoying yourself.”

“Ma Donna Medici,” he greets you, causing the blood in you to freeze, before he answers you with a motion of his wine glass towards the main room you’d just been in, “As much as one can at these sorts of events.”

Holding onto what you’re sure is a brittle smile, you chide him softly, “Oh come now, we have known each other since we were children and now we are family… Surely you can use my name?”

You see the small uptick of his lips, enough to let you know that you’ve at the very least amused him but before he can answer, Lorenzo is there and he apparently has things to discuss with the man in front of you. 

Knowing a dismissal when you heard one, you nodded your head at the two of them before making your excuses. 

Francesco watches as Y/N walks out the door and rejoins the others in the celebration. In that moment, he wishes he had been a better man. That he had been strong enough to do exactly what Guglielmo had done and had ran away with you years ago. 

But Bianca and Guglielmo were afforded a little more in their youth. 

While all the world knew that the Medici legacy was dependent on Lorenzo. They often forgot that a large part of the coming legacy would also come from Y/N. 

Lorenzo had married nobility but if they could make an advantageous match for Y/N as well, the power of the Medici family would be uncontested throughout all of Italy. 

Francesco had loved Y/N since he was a child. Even as his uncle had demanded and bred a contempt for the Medici’s, Francesco had always stood up for her. It had led to quite a few beatings in his childhood. Some of which his back still bore the evidence of. 

He had thought about approaching her a thousand times in his youth. Of begging her to take him. 

But there was no way that he could. 

Francesco Pazzi was to carry on the legacy of the Pazzi family just as Lorenzo was his. 

There was a time in his life when Francesco would have damned the whole thought to hell and fallen on bended knee, begging the woman to abscond away with him but then he’d discovered Guglielmo and Bianca. 

He would not tear away his brother from someone he loved. At least one of them should be allowed to be happy.

Lorenzo’s voice breaks through his thoughts, calling his name again and Francesco is pulled back to the moment in front of him, “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

He watches Lorenzo’s eyes flick from him towards the girl through the doors and God help him Lorenzo tries not to look, tries not to be so obvious in his affections but he can’t help himself. It’s as if the world begins and ends with Y/N Medici. 

He could stare at her until the end of time and still he would not have his fill of her. 

A cleared throat brings his attention back to Lorenzo. 

“You know, the two of you are the same side of the same coin,” Lorenzo tells him and Francesco can’t help but narrow his eyes at the man in front of him. Lorenzo puts his hands up in a placating manner. 

“You really don’t see it do you?” Lorenzo questions him and Francesco can feel his patience wearing thin. 

“What are you talking about, Medici?” he snaps at the arrogant man in front of him. 

“Just as you love my sister, she loves you,” Lorenzo tells him and Francesco prepares himself for a fight. He has never done anything inappropriate with Y/N and brother or not, he will skewer Lorenzo if he even implies it. 

Lorenzo, for his part, either does not notice or decides not to mention it. Instead, Lorenzo tells him, “While my sister was never obvious, her worry of you and the way she would scold Giuliano and I after an incident… well that and the way that you look at her- I suspected the two of you of a romance. 

“Imagine my surprise when, after paying closer attention, I realized that the two of you did not speak unless in public. But my, my how the two of you gravitate towards each other. I had hoped, if we could get past the bickering with your Uncle, that we may have made a betrothal between the two of you. But, it would seem that Bianca and Guglielmo have put an end to that.” 

He can feel Lorenzo’s hand on his shoulder and the man squeezes his shoulder before changing the topic, “About the alum then….”

-


End file.
